MURRIETA: Housing density could increase to meet state demands

City planners propose allowing as many as 30 units per acre in some parts of town

In order to keep up with state mandates for residential
development, Murrieta is considering allowing homebuilders to pack
nearly twice as many units per acre as is now permissible in some
of the city's most rural areas.

Also, city officials are working to find a place where an
emergency shelter could be built to satisfy a separate state
mandate.

The Murrieta Planning Commission will review a 130-page report
drafted by planning officials known as the city's Housing Element.
The commissioners will analyze the report at the end of Wednesday's
meeting at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 24601 Jefferson Ave.

City Council members are scheduled to review the document on
Sept. 1, said City Planner Mary Lanier. Once they approve the plan,
which is essentially a long-term blueprint for residential
development in Murrieta, it will be forwarded to the State
Department of Housing and Community Development for final
approval.

The Housing Element is one of seven sections the city must
include in its overall plan for future development. It's the only
section that the state reviews, and the state's approval is
required in order for the city to apply for and receive certain
state grants.

The housing element is a way for cities to show that they will
have enough developable land to accommodate projected population
increases. It is expected to show where housing developments could
be built to accommodate high-income residents, where apartments and
condominiums could be built to accommodate low-income residents,
and where an emergency shelter could operate.

City officials have been working to determine where an emergency
shelter or transitional housing could be built without special
approval by city planners, which would make it much easier to open
such a shelter. City regulations allow a shelter to be built in
areas designated for commercial and office development, but
planning commissioners would still analyze the project to determine
whether a shelter would be compatible with the surrounding
businesses.

Lanier said planners have not yet identified a particular area
where such a shelter could be built without an extra layer of
scrutiny by planning officials.

While the state does not require that the city build any homes
or even approve residential development applications, the city must
identify areas in the city where more than 6,300 housing units can
be built by 2014.

Murrieta is already well-stocked with housing for people who
make at least average incomes, but there is a smaller supply of
homes for those who earn low and very low incomes. The state is
requiring the city to identify areas where as many as 2,600 homes
---- typically apartments ---- for low-income residents could be
built.

To accommodate the requirement, planning commissioners will
consider seven areas where developers might one day be allowed to
build as many as 30 units per acre. The maximum number of units
that can be built on an acre now is 18.

"We don't have anything that dense here in Murrieta, so it
definitely would be a new designation," Lanier said.

While the City Council is taking steps to make office buildings
and corporate offices the primary focus of future development for
the area around the Clinton Keith Road/ Interstate-215 interchange,
city planners also believe apartments could be suitable there.

Planning officials see the potential to develop low-income
housing on 9.4 acres northeast of the I-215/Clinton Keith Road
interchange. The area is designed to accommodate rural homes, but
housing officials believe as many as 176 low-income apartments
could be built there.

Another 308 units could be built nearby between Baxter and
Running Rabbit roads, the report states.

And a total of 935 units could be built on the west side of the
city bounded by Washington and Adams avenues, and Lemon and
Magnolia streets; at the northeast corner of Jefferson Avenue and
Juniper Street; at Adams Avenue and Ivy Street; south of Ivy
Street, north of Murrieta Hot Springs Road and west of Madison
Avenue; and at the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Murrieta
Hot Springs Road.

With city leaders carefully crafting a plan to bring in
businesses that would increase sales taxes and the number of
high-paying jobs, Planning Commissioner Tom Butler said it's also
important to make careful suggestions about where homes should be
built.

"Murrieta is approaching build-out, so it's more and more
important to wisely use the land we have remaining," Butler said.
"We only have so much of those (still-undeveloped) large parcels
left to go around, so you have to get the best use out of it."